CUP holders Tavistock eased through to this year’s semi-finals of the Lockie Cup by beating the Peninsula Medical School 43-17 at Sandy Park on Saturday.

Tavistock were 43-5 up after 50 minutes, but they took their foot of the gas a bit in the second half and the Medics, with Plymouth Albion and Devonport Services back Tom Davies in their side, came back and finished the game strongly.

‘It was a strange game,’ said Tavistock head coach Joel Caddy. ‘We had quite a lot of players unavailable but still picked a decent side, however, even the warm-up was slightly flat and we started flat.

‘We gave away silly penalties and we did not seem to play that well, but still scored 40-odd points.’

‘We had spurts in the game, but the second half they had nothing to lose and threw caution to the wind.

‘We did finish with four lads under-19 in the backs and one in the forwards, so we have got a pretty young side.’

The Medics started the better and took an early lead with an unconverted try from close range by Toby Pye.

But then Tavistock got going and scored five tries in 20-odd minutes.

Winger Ed Tait got them underway with a try in the left corner, which was followed by two from full-back Jack Le Gassick in the opposite corner as Tavistock used the width of the pitch well.

Hooker Jack Lewis then scored a fine try, that George Hillson converted, before Martin Budden crossed for one on the same side to make the half-time score 29-5.

Tavistock took just four minutes of the second half to bag a sixth touch-down. Good runs by Le Gassick and Budden set up number eight Jamie Legg to score under the posts.

Lewis then got a second after the home side had pushed the Medics off a scrum to make it 43-5.

Both teams made changes at that point and it was the Medics who then had the better of the rest of the game.

Impressive number eight Adam Aslam-Baskeyfield scored a fine try for the Medics before lock Morgan Drewson scored in the left corner after the visitors had been held up over the line a couple of minutes earlier.